UPDATE 3/22/22: Microsoft has added a single-click solution for changing your default web browser. With the KB5011563 update installed, navigate to Settings > Apps > Default apps and then search for your preferred browser. A button should then appear allowing it to become the default with a click.
Original Story:Microsoft would really like all Windows 10 users to keep Edge as their default browser, but switching to Chrome, Firefox, or one of the many other web browsers out there is quick and easy. For Windows 11 that's not going to be the case.
As The Verge reports, Microsoft has decided to ditch the ability to simply switch out one browser for another in the Default apps window in Windows 11. Instead, you're going to have to change every file type associated with the web to open with your browser of choice. That means .html, .svg, .pdf, .ftp, and the list goes on.
The question is, why would Microsoft do this? It's hard to think of a reason other than making it so difficult to change default browsers that users won't bother. Ultimately, if it remains this difficult, then frustrated users will turn to third-party tools to make it easier.
Microsoft does have an explanation (and offers some hope): "With Windows 11, we are implementing customer feedback to customize and control defaults at a more granular level, eliminating app categories and elevating all apps to the forefront of the defaults experience ... As evidenced by this change, we’re constantly listening and learning, and welcome customer feedback that helps shape Windows. Windows 11 will continue to evolve over time; if we learn from user experience that there are ways to make improvements, we will do so."
So the situation may change if enough people get angry and complain. As you can imagine, other browser companies are already doing so.
Selena Deckelmann, senior vice president of Firefox, told The Verge: "We have been increasingly worried about the trend on Windows ... Since Windows 10, users have had to take additional and unnecessary steps to set and retain their default browser settings. These barriers are confusing at best and seem designed to undermine a user’s choice for a non-Microsoft browser."
On Twitter, Hiroshi Lockheimer—SVP at Google for Android, Chrome, Chrome OS Play, Comms and Photos—took a swipe at Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's assertion to the Wall Street JournalWall Street Journal that "Windows gives you the most choice."
"I hope this is just a developer preview thing, and the shipping version of Windows 11 lives up to their claims. This is far from 'choice,'" Lockheimer writes.
Of course, Microsoft has already landed itself in hot water when it comes to browser choice. In 2009, Microsoft agreed to ship a version of Windows 7 with a "browser ballot" that allowed users to select which browser they wanted during the OS installation process, as part of an antitrust deal with the European Commission. Redmond was accused of violating competition law by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. That ballot mandate expired in 2014.